St. Landry democrat., 1887-07-28

tonight who will not sleep at all. Go up
that dark alley, and be cautious where
you tread, lest you fall over the PROSTATE
form of drunkard lying on his own door
step. Look about you, lest you feel the
garroter's hug. Look through the broken
window-pane, and see what you can see.
You say: "Nothing." Then listen. What
is it, God help us!'' No footlights, but
tragedy ghastler and mightier than Ris-
tori or Edwin Booth ever enacted. N O
light, no fire, no bread, no hope SILVER
ing IN the cold, they have had no food for
twenty-four hours. You say: ''Why don't
they beg" They do, but they get moth
ing. You say: "Why don't they deliver
themselves over to the almshouse." All.
the bitter cry of man or child when told
he must go to the almshouse.
''O!' you say, "they are vicious poor,
and, therefore, they do not deserve our
sympathy" Are they vicious! So much
more need they your pity. The Christian
poor, God helps them. Through their
night there wrinkles the round, merry
star of hope, and through the broken
window-pane they see the crystals of
heaven; but the vicious poor, they are
more to be pitied. Their last light has
gone out. You excuse yourself from
helping them by saying they are so bad,
they brought this trouble on themselves
l reply, where l give ten prayers for the
innocent who are suffering l will give
twenty prayers for the guilty who are
suffering.
Pass on through the alley. Open the
door 'NOh," you say, sit is locked" No,
it is not locked. 1t has never been locked.
No Burglar would be tempted to go in
there to steal any thing. The door is
never locked. Only broken chair stands
against the door. Shove it back. Go in.
Strike match. Now, look. Beastllness
and rags. See those glaring eyeballs
Be careful now what you say. Do not
utter any insult, do not utter any sus
picion, if you value your life.' What is
that red mark on the wall! 1t is the mark
of murderer's hand.
Look at those two eyes rising up out of
the darkness and out from the straw in
the corner, coming toward you, and as
they come near you, your light goes out.
Strike another match. All this is babe,
not like those beautiful children presented
in baptism. This little one never smiled;
it never will smile. A flower flung on an
Shepherd. fold that little one in thy arms.
Wrap around you your shawl or your coat
tighter, for the cold wind sweeps through.
Strike another match. All: is it pos.
sible that that young woman's SCARED
and bruised face ever was looked into by
maternal tenderness! Utter no scorn.
Utter no harsh word. No ray OF hope has
dawned on that brow for many year.
No ray of hope ever will dawn on that
brow. But the light has gone out. Do
not strike another light. 1t would be
q mockery to kindle another light
in such place as that. Pass out and
pass down the street. Our cities of
Brooklyn and New York and all our great
cities are full of such homes, and the
worst time the third watch of the night.
Do you know it is in this third watch of
the night that criminals do their worst
work! 1t is the criminals watch
Many of these poor creatures were
brought up in that way. They were born
in thieves garnet. Their childish toy
was burglars dark lantern. The first
thing they remember was their mother
bandaging the brow of their father, struck
by the police club. They began by rob-
bling boys pockets, and now they have
come to dig the underground passage to
the cellar of the bank, and are preparing
to blast the gold vault
just so long as there are neglected chill
dren on the street, just so long we will
have these desperadoes. Some one, wish
ing to make good Christian point and to
quote a passage of Scripture, expecting
to get Scriptural passage in answer,
said to one of these poor lads, cast out
and wretched: "When your father and
your mother forsake YOU, who, then, will
take you up." and the boy said: 'The
perlice, the perlice!"
In the third watch of the night gam bling
does it's worst work. What though the
hours be slipping away, and though the
wife be waiting in the cherries home?
Stir up the fire. Bring on more drinks.
Put up more stakes. That commercial
house that only a little while ago put out
a sign of copartnership will this winter
be wrecked on a gamblers table. There
will be many money-till that will spring
a leak. A member of Congress gambled
with member elect and won $4,000.
The old way of getting living is so slow.
The oil way of getting a fortune is so
stupid. Come, let US toss up and see who
shall have it. And so the work goes on,
rom the wheeling wretches pitching pen
lies in rum grocery up to the millionaire
gambler in the stock market
In the third watch of the night, pass
Town the streets of these cities, and you
near the click of the dice, and the sharp,
Keen stroke of the ball on the billiard ia
de. At these places merchant princes
lismount, and legislators, tired of max
ng laws, take respite in breaking them.
All classes of people are robbed by this
importer of foreign silks and
he dealer of Chatham street pocket
The clerks of the store
AXE hand after the shutters are put up,
md the officers of the court while away |
heir time while the jury is out.
In en-Baden, when that city was
he greatest of all gambling places on
arth, it was no unusual thing in the |
morning, in the woods around about |
he city, to find the suspended bod |
es of suicides. Whatever be the splen- |
or of surroundings, there is no ex-
use for this crime. The thunders of |
ternal destruction roll in the deep rumble |
f that gambling ten-pin alley, and as |